This offering maybe right, or wrong, but it is one, the other, both, or neither!Blog,-Some Suttas Translated,Ajahn Chah."Others will misconstrue reality due to their personal perspectives, doggedly holding onto and not easily discarding them; We shall not misconstrue reality due to our own personal perspectives, nor doggedly holding onto them, but will discard them easily. This effacement shall be done."

In the time of the Buddha a woman was married to a hunter. She used to fetch his weapons and traps every morning he went hunting. She prepared the meat he brought back for their meals. She was a Stream-winner. The Buddha said that she was blameless as she was simply obeying her husband.

So the question is are you under any social obligation to fetch the beer?

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:In the time of the Buddha a woman was married to a hunter. She used to fetch his weapons and traps every morning he went hunting. She prepared the meat he brought back for their meals. She was a Stream-winner. The Buddha said that she was blameless as she was simply obeying her husband.

So the question is are you under any social obligation to fetch the beer?

Hello Bhante.

Thanks for the story.

I don't fully understand your question though. What is meant by 'social obligation'? I can refuse to fetch the beer if I want to.

My motto, philosophy, and guiding principle: You should do what’s good, Stephen. You should do what’s good. Always choose whatever is good.

Thank you for your reply. I guess I don't understand how the differentiation is made. If your parents ask you to lie for them to the government and you refuse, is that akusala? If they ask you to steal? I just don't understand the difference and want to be clear about how to maintain pure sila especially since I'm going to be spending Thanksgiving in the company of my parents. Thank you.

Mike

To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.-Dhp. 183

Hi MikeI always err on the side of caution with regards to sila. Sila is the foundation of the path and without sila there can be no sammasamadhi and no panna. Don't break the sila yourself, don't encourage others to break their sila, and don't speak in praise of other people's sila-breaking behaviour.kind regards

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Excellent reply! Yes, I definitely agree but Venerable's reply to Stefan got me worried that even in doing my best I may be unintentionally committing akusala kamma. This is especially relevant as all of my family are drinkers and there's sure to be all manner of unskillful conduct afoot when we get together for the holidays this week. I'll just work on guarding my own sila as best as I know how. Metta.

Mike

To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.-Dhp. 183

I wonder if using the wrong word unintentionally is unwholesome kamma?

Presumably, Mike meant "unknowingly." In which case, one can easily commit unwholesome kamma — that is one may do something, believing it to be wholesome or at least blameless, while it is, in fact, unwholesome, e.g. mercy-killing, etc.

Some people are too scrupulous, and worry about nothing, but it is good to reflect on one's actions, before, during, and after doing them, to consider whether they were skilful or not.

Mahāsi Sayādaw wrote:We now come to the subject of vinaya kukkucca. Doubt may arise concerning certain matters relevant to the rules of discipline (vinaya). Sceptical doubt arises as to whether it is right or wrong, proper or improper, regarding one’s own actions, or the use of requisites. When such doubt occurs, it will not yet reach the stage of committing an offence. This kind of doubt is relevant to the rule of discipline. It is therefore regarded as an attribute that all monks should possess. Yet some monks pay no heed to any such doubt that might occur. In the absence of any such doubt or hesitation, they may give do a misdeed that amounts to contravening the rules of discipline. These monks will not have purity of mind or morality. Without reflecting on the propriety or impropriety of any such acts, they may do anything they like regardless of the rules of discipline laid down for monks.